The cycle of recurrence: why Ebola persists in an era of countermeasure abundance

Abstract

Abundant medical countermeasures, including highly efficacious strain-specific vaccines, have not stopped Ebola from returning. Each outbreak exposes the same fatal weakness: global health governance still reacts faster than it builds. Audits after the fact change little without sustained domestic financing, empowered frontline systems and political accountability that survives the news cycle. The cycle can break—but only if Ebola control pivots from episodic emergency response to resilient, sovereign, operationally agile preparedness.